hrd-hr30

I can see the entry list for Round 1 of the NSW State Championship. Its the only one of its kind entered, and would make the championship a foregone conclusion. None of the other cars on that entry list should be within 15 seconds of that machine. Same would go for last year's Australian Championship. And csanning back through a couple of previous year's NSW Supersprints, its the same story. Very similar cars to what we get up here - grassroots motorsport. Michelle said she's not getting trophies for FTD John certainly would have to fight to get a road reg clubman on DOT rubber to keep up with a purpose built sports racing car like the radical! Things like the Radical run in Supersports, which are superior machinery to Clubman style cars. You are eligible for that State Championship. If you so badly want to be in a State Championship Competition, go and play with other cars like yours. Michelle's in a different boat because she bought a car from a defunct category. Its really only suitable to be converted into a hillclimber. how's it go - caveat emptor? If Ben's car's not relevant to what we're talking about, don't bring it up. No sense buying a car you can't race anywhere, then complaining about it. Its the old golden rule: Check the rules before you lift a spanner, or in this case open your wallet. my point exactly. by excluding the two oddball cars that are vastly superior to anything else running at this level of motorsport, they've made the Championship a real competition between a whole bunch of cars. No one wants to see one single F3000/F2 based open wheeler with a bigger engine trundle around in a class of its own bludgeoning the other vehicles who have no hope of keepign up with a Formula Holden, and walk away with the championship at the end of the year. What an achievement that would be. I would have suported it up here for that same reason. Its a common sense decision. whether they do occassional beat you is not the point. Thier car's really shouldn't be within 15 seconds of the F4000/Holden at most tracks. Its not fair to everyone else to be competing against that kind of car at this level. bottom line: get a suitable car for the competition, don't turn up with a totally different league of vehicle and complain until the rules suit you.

terribly sorry if what I said offended anyone, but the only thing Michelle is missing out on is a trophy and points in a series where she has no competition. that's the fact of the matter. rationalise your argument any way you want. ben bought a car with no suitable class to race it in. michelle bought a car from a defunct racing category. Neil has a car that people only buy to run in a specialised sports car class - supersports. That class doesn't exist at the club level motorsport of sprints. so they lump all your oddball cars into type 5 to allow you to run even though none of you have a suitable class. you all still get to run at the NSW Supersprint Championship, and all you do is whinge about how you're not allowed to take out the championship with your vastly superior equipment with no opposition. If you wanted to compete (I mean actually compete against other vehicles in a similar configuration/level of performance) in the NSW Supersprint Championship with a chance of winning it outright, then you could have bought a car in a category that is eligible for points and compete aganst other similar cars. Michelle wants into a championship that has no suitable competition and the obvious end result is that she will bludgeon the opposition with a vastly superior vehicle. That would be great for the other 120 odd competitors! the alternative is you end up with what we had up here, a single Formula Holden entering and the QLD Championship was instantly a foregone conclusion. Everyone else is just racing for class wins. What's wrong with just making the odd one out race for class wins instead and let the CHampionship be decided in a fair fight?

that's exactly what it was. it was the pinnacle of motor racing in Australia, deciding the Australian Driver Championship. I think the Goldstar championship even used to send the winner to Europe. The category was designed to give our young talent a taste for decent power big aero cars as a stepping stone to Europe. They changed to an internationally recognised category some years ago to further this initiative. no-one in Europe knew what a Formula Holden was. You would have known there was limited opportunity to race it when you picked it up cheap. You can still drive it at these events, so what's the big deal? You know you were the fastest car there, and so does everyone else. They knew you would be before you pushed it off the trailer/transporter... If you want a trophy go buy one for $10. If you want a free pass to a state championship in a competition where you have no real opponents then i can't say i sympathise. we'll have to agree to disagree. they ran a minute flat around Oran Park GP you know. No tin top is ever going to be able to do that.

I know - it was built for a national circuit racing category designed to give people a stepping stone to Europe. It was the category that decided the Australian Drivers Championship. Not a club level car in any way, shape or form. Its a State Supersprint Championship. Supersprints are designed as a stepping stone into circuit racing. Its for grass roots competitors. You won't see Kimi Raikonnen (the equivalent of Federer & I should have picked a name I could spell!) turning up in his F1 car. And yes i would agree to not letting him play if he did turn up. And you won't see many other National open wheel category cars (F3 or whatever the latest flavour is now) bothering with a supersprint either - its like swatting flies

yep, that's about what they want to happen I think! lol

is it in the Sup Regs that the State Championship is only open to Types 1-4 & SV? Does this just exclude open wheelers from the championship making it a tin-top championship? If so, I can understand that. Back when i used to do the QLD Supersprint Championship (2001-2004), there was a single Formula Holden (Derek Pingel) that would turn up and collect the title every year. He had no actual competition, so it sort of made a mockery of the Championship - there was only ever one bloke who was going to win it. I would have supported it if they had done this up here. It may be a State Championship, but sprints are still grass roots level motorsport. Its not really the place for open wheelers. Hillclimbs are really all about Formula Libre. Supersprints are really for tin-tops. I don't see a problem with it if they want to make it a tin top championship. They 'd be perfectly within their rights to just exclude Formula Libre from the event all together. At least you get to run, and you get the FTD trophies.

tread gently, most sprints up here don't have classes for open wheelers. from: http://www.camsmanual.com.au/pdf/03_speed/..._Libre_Q109.pdf

lol I don't see Type 5 in the CAMS Manual anywhere? It's always confusing as a QLDer doing NSW events with these Type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & SV categories

don't tell me you're actually going to drive your own car in Clubman??? lol

Russ did a 17.1 at Superlap last year in their JDM R35. not a bad effort to better Skaifey!

get yourself the $100-$150 alloy subframe/cradle bush kits and save yourself a grand or more Take about an hour to fit at home with a trolley jack and hand tools. They fit in over the original bushes. http://www.justjap.com/store/product.php?p...=270&page=1

and no Landcruisers please. Sure it was a talking point and was all over the forums and Ignition DVD, but it really doesn't send out the right image for the event, does it?.

yeah Boz, most of the track has been resurfaced - down the hill after the bridge and Hungry is still the old surface. and the main straight has been widened 3m. By all accounts the front straight is seriously fast now! More details: http://www.qldraceways.com.au/lakeside/Lak...rade_180109.pdf http://www.qldraceways.com.au/lakeside/New...otos_210209.pdf Harry

na, I was up at Inskipp Pt trying out the new camper trailer. I'm waiting for the Open or Midweek sprints so I can take the new track toy out.

so it is. must have had a few too many cans around the campfire on the weekend! so, anyone know the car and how it went?

spill the beans - how'd it go?

the thing is other tyre manufacturers manage to do these 2 sizes for pretty similar money. Kumho $435 & $465, Bridgestone $448 & $457. Dunlop $465 & $560? their 245/40*17 price is bizarre! so I don't think its that they are charging more because they know they have the fast tyre. The 225/45 is actually pretty close to the other brands. its just that some sizes are disproportionately over-priced. or maybe some are disproportionately under-priced?

dunlop price varies dramatically with the size. eg: 225/45*17 $465 only about $30 more than most tyres up here. 245/40*17 $560 about $100 per tyre more than other brands (local Brisbane prices).

I have Kumho KU36 on my Supra because I track it fairly regularly and only have one set of rims. Good tyre for what they are, but they're not a semi slick. I use 245/40 and 275/35 * 18. I've done 2 Lakeside Sprints, 1 QR Sprint and probably 5000km of street driving since Sept last year. On the road: they're not loud, good in the wet, but tramline alot (I run a fairly agressive alignment too so its hard to say how much of that is caused by the tyre). On the track: - Only really good for about 3 laps before the rears go off. This is on my Supra remember, and my rears get a fair workout from my driving style... Might last a bit longer on an AWD car. I'm careful not to warm them up too much on the warm up lap as they work best just off cold. That's not to say they're better than a cold semi slick - they're not. - They need alot of pressure like a street tyre. I run between 36 and 40psi cold. I found there was no point aiming for a target hot pressure because by the time they get hot, they're past their best. Better off aiming for a hot lap straight off the cuff with these tyres. Mine generaly come on the 1st or 2nd flying lap. byt he end of the 3rd lap you have to start being a bit more careful with the right foot. I'm really happy with them on the Supra. If you only had one set of rims and wanted a jack-of-all-trades tyre,I'd recommend them. Or if you just want them as a really good street tyre and aren't really concerned about wear, then yeah go for it.

open face/full face - your choice. I'll add my vote for full face helmets because you're wearing them for safety - a full face offers more protection. Just seriously consider this article before purchasing an expensive helmet that meets Snell standards. The results of their impact tests are a real eye-opener. http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/...view/index.html

try Taleb Tyres Sydney if you are considering the 03G, call QR. They have a very good post sales service offer.

biggest thing is to stay off the rev limiter - the hard cut causes alot of vibration in the crank and can fatigue the oil pump drive. Its very easy to hit the limiter at Mt Cotton out of turn 1 and the hairpin in both directions. then there's the usual running an extra bit of oil, that you probably already know about. on tyres here are the local prices I got quoted for the 245/40*17 rears for my Sil80 which is probably similar size to what you want on the GTR: 03G $560 RE55S $457 (+$15 freight ea) V70A $465 R888 don't make a 245/40. 255/40=$473 The 255/40 R888 out of Sydney were $350ea + $65 freight on the set build dates were end of 07 and early 08, so they were current stock and GG compound.

I've done about a zillion hillclimbs at Mt Cotton over the years. Get a proper semi slick. The Federal and Kumho KU36 will be giving away too much time to everyone else in the AWD Turbo class. You will get tired of that before the end of the season! For Hillclimbs on a heavy car like the GTR I'd go with Medium compounds in whatever tyre you get. Hards are for circuit racing and tarmac rallies that have to make tyres last an entire event. Mt Cotton is only 980m long! and you'll normally get 4 runs per event, so they will still last a long time. My old R32 GTR ran 46.24 at Mt Cotton on 225/50*16 RE55S SR compound a few years ago. I know that's the hard compound and goes against what i just said, but there was only the choice of hards and soft (wet) compounds and I intended to do some Supersprints as well. They worked OK at the Hillclimb, but I didn't have as much power as you - mine was basically stock apart from exhaust and Mine's ECU, and Buddy Club coilvers. If you do go with semi slicks look into getting them from down south. I just saved $90 per tyre compared to local prices on Toyo R888's from St George Tyres in Sydney, and WRXkilla buys his RE55S from Donellans in Melbourne I think.

1) I have fitted them on a car with leaking bushes. 2) No-one is suggesting they don't work. the only 'con' people ever mention with them is the noise issue. I didn't find it a problem, and I've never heard anyone else who has actually used them complain about it either. So spend the lousy $135 and give them a try. IF you find the noise is too much for you to bear, sell them for $100 and get the bushes. no great loss. god its hard

I used the alloy subframe mounts in my R32 GTR. only a minor increase in noise. Barely noticeable over the exhaust anyway. You can get them for less than $150 and fit them in under an hour at home so why not try them?